Welcome to the third continuous installment of the AoKH AI Scripting Ladder, now supporting Userpatch for the first time. Here you can enter your AI to compete against AIs with a wide range of abilities and a huge range of strategies. Whether it's to improve your AI's skill or whether you want to enjoy the exciting fun and community it provides, the Userpatch AI scripting ladder will suit your needs.

The Userpatch (UP) is a community patch that provides enormous benefits to the game, allowing AIs to become exponentially more intelligent, among others. Click here to download the patch and learn about everything the Userpatch can do! You'll find many scripters here who are more than willing to help you learn how to script and how to use the new UP commands.

Also, if you enjoy scripting, you should join the AI scripters community at http://forums.aiscripters.com/. You can also find a guide to AI scripting here and a guide to the new UP commands here.

How Do I Join?

If you want to enter the ladder, just drop a post in the thread with a link to your AI, tell us what civ you want it to play, and your AI will be added to the ladder.

When you enter your AI, it will play four unrated games against different opponents and given a rating based on its performance. Once your AI has been given a rating, your AI is ready to enter round play and climb up the ladder.

New: Each forummer can only have one AI in the ladder at any time.

How Does the Ladder Work?

Like multiplayer ladders, the AI ladder determines an AI script's overall skill ability over the course of several games and compares the skill ratings of other AIs to each other.

The AI Ladder uses the ELO system, the same system used to rank chess players or players on online gaming sites such as Voobly. The ladder is run in rounds with each AI grouped in a league of (ideally) five AIs according to ability. During each round, each AI will play each other AI in its league twice. The winning AI's score in each match will be increased according to its opponent's score, either a large amount if the AI defeated a higher ranked opponent or a smaller amount if the AI defeated a lower ranked opponent. The losing AI's score is decreased in the same way. Once the round is over, a new one begins, creating continuous cycles of competitive fun.

To make things more interesting, we randomize between Arabia, Ghost Lake, Gold Rush, Mongolia, Oasis, and Yucatan. To facilitate the randomization, you can download the official AI Ladder random map randomizer to test your AI and to test matches: link

AI Classes:

New: All AIs are divided into leagues according to ability, with ideally 5 AIs in each league. The leagues are reorganized at the end of each round to re-sort the AIs into the leagues by ability.

If an AI is the lowest-ranked AI, has at least 75 points lower than every other AI, and has lost at least three games in a row, the AI will likely be dropped unless the author requests the AI to remain in the ladder.

Game Requests:

New: Requested games no longer count for score, but they can be requested nevertheless.

Previous AI Ladders:

In addition, for those who like a bit of nostalgia, you can find the previous installments of the AI scripting ladder here:

Anyone can judge any of the games in the AI ladder, and judges do not have to sign up for a game before playing it. However, you may make a post in the thread if you wish to reserve a game to judge. Those who are willing to judge and record these games, please post for which games you would like to play. Authors should not judge games that contain their own AI. All games should be played on Hard difficulty, tiny map, 200 pop, Dark Age, low resources, and Conquest victory. The current version of the Userpatch (version 1.4) and the official randomizer map script should be used. Games will be considered a draw if they last more than two hours, unless an AI has less than 2 villagers at the two hour mark. Thus, you can end the game after two hours if you wish.

It is recommended that the judges cheat "natural wonders" so that there is no possibility of interference from the judge. However, if you feel that this would hamper your ability to review the game you may opt not to do this, as long as you provide the recorded game.

If you decide to use Cheat Engine's speedhack feature, please limit your games to x5 speed on Slow speed or x3 speed on Fast speed, unless one AI has clearly won the game and you want to speed up the "cleaning up" process. Any faster speedhack is prone to mess up AI functionality on slower computers.

Once the game is finished, please write a short review of the game. Provide helpful comments on what were each AI's weak points so that the authors of the scripts can know how to update them. Also post the recorded game link along with the review. To make it easier for us to gather information from the reviews, please post the reviews of the games in this format (just copy it into your post and edit it):

AI #1 (Civilization) vs. AI #2 (Civilization)

Map: Arabia (or whatever map is chosen)

1 Jan, 2013 (this date is just an example of the format)Map Type: Mongolia (or whatever map is chosen)

Review:

.........

Winner: (AI Name)Recorded Game link

Thanks for judging and reviewing! Here is the current schedule. Sign up for the games you would like to play:

Season 2

Round 4

Entrance Games:

1.

Entering AI:-

vs.

Opponents:-

Results:-

Cavaliers League:

AIs:BarbarianPromiJuggernautThe Horde

Round W-L4-00-40-22-0

vs. BarbarianxLLLL--

vs. PromiWWx--WW

vs. JuggernautWW--x--

vs. The Horde--LL--x

Knights League:

AIs:TRONDaedricIlluminatiCrusadeIS Machine

Round W-L2-23-34-21-32-2

vs. TRONxLWWL----

vs. DaedricWLxWL--WL

vs. IlluminatiLWLWxLL--

vs. Crusade----WWxLW

vs. IS Machine--LW--WLx

Squires League:

AIs:Tribal WarriorsBruteForceBossMeleonThe Unknown

Round W-L2-00-40-44-24-0

vs. Tribal WarriorsxLL------

vs. BruteForceWWx--WW--

vs. Boss----xWWWW

vs. Meleon--LLLLxWW

vs. The Unknown----LLLLx

~`o´~|\Join the fresh and exciting AI Ladder for its fourth season!´ ` |_\|Learn the joy of AI scripting in my guide: The World of AI Scripting______|______ \ /.....Hinga Dinga Durgen! - SpongeBob`-=<.__.>=-´

Ugh you could've at least given me a chance to upload the new version of Nightmare before judging... I did mention previously that I had one, anyway thanks Promi and gg Offwo

PromiskuitivSquire

posted
08-19-13 03:15 AM
CT (US)
52 / 1174

Oh, i didn't do this intentionally sorry.But next time please say that you want people to wait before judging a game with your AI, cause "Typical that 3 of those things you mentioned are now fixed in the new version" is not something i keep in mind (cause there's no information on when you're gonna release it anyway).If you want the game to be rejudged then Leif will probably allow someone to do so (not sure though).

I know, but it's judged and it was my fault for not saying so it would be pretty mean to potentially take away Offwo's victory so it can stay as it is

Leif EricsonSeraph Emeritus

posted
08-19-13 07:57 AM
CT (US)
54 / 1174

And Leif, isn't this round 3, not round 2? :P

Yep.

And yeah, if you don't want a game to be played because you are close to releasing an update, specifically state that you're going to release an update soon. Then if someone prematurely plays the game, I'll allow a rematch after the update is released.

~`o´~|\Join the fresh and exciting AI Ladder for its fourth season!´ ` |_\|Learn the joy of AI scripting in my guide: The World of AI Scripting______|______ \ /.....Hinga Dinga Durgen! - SpongeBob`-=<.__.>=-´

AlevoSquire

posted
08-19-13 08:23 AM
CT (US)
55 / 1174

New version of Nightmare, same link

zergsSquire

posted
08-19-13 09:07 AM
CT (US)
56 / 1174

Crusade (Random => Byzantine) vs UnfairSteel (Random => Goths), yucatan mapThe map layout was not well suited for AI with a north to south river separating both teams and only one single passing far north.

Both AI were prepared for yucatan maps, built two mills and hunted all three boars, but still used more farms than necessary for flushing.

Both AIs went for an extended feudal age war with m@a, archer, skirms and towers, Crusade switched to scout later. So he was able to stop Steels final feudal attack easily, but at the cost of a slower castle age advancement. Castle age times were 32min for Steel and 36 min for Crusade, despite Steel losing several villagers trying to build and fish on Crusade's side of the map. But Steel made a good use of his faster age advancement and went for huskies, which I think was a good idea as Crusade had a lot of ranged units.

After Crusade upgraded its units, it attacked. I think the following big battle, which was very one sided in favor of Steel, was mainly decided by the fact Steel uses sn-enable-patrol-attack 1 while Crusade does not. Yes, scripter did such a good job with this SN (and UP in general).

After getting a huge advantage of this battle, Steel immediately counter attacked. Crusade didn't give rank one in the ladder without a good defense, but in the end resistance was futile.

gg campeador, it's round 3 so steel and crusade were higher then promi (also undefeated) because we beat 2 AIs that were originally undefeated (1600 and 1624) while promi defeated one AI that was of 1600 and another of 1576

Yeah, since we had 10 AIs, 5 who won the first round and 5 who lost, there had to be one match between an AI who lost and an AI who won during the second round. Promi was in that match and gained fewer points by winning that match because he had an easier opponent.

~`o´~|\Join the fresh and exciting AI Ladder for its fourth season!´ ` |_\|Learn the joy of AI scripting in my guide: The World of AI Scripting______|______ \ /.....Hinga Dinga Durgen! - SpongeBob`-=<.__.>=-´

Review: Both ai's go fast feudal and create military units. At first it appeared machine had superiority but promi caught up and attacked first. It hit machines camp and the pain began. Machines army of archers, skirms, spears and scouts races to defend but is eaten by the army of archers and skirms. Promi soon builds a forward tower, perfectly placed ready to pick off any more of machines army. Soon promi is doing lots of damage and retreating its units perfectly when in danger. Promi castles at 27 min and it appears all is lost for machine. Promi's units are upgraded. Something strange happened here though. Promi's army began to act like it had a ram and stopped retreating, eventually losing alot of units to some nice recovery work from machine. Promi retreats and begins booming (slowly). Machine soon hits castle at about 38 min. By now machine has a really nice army brewing. It immediately upgrades and launches a counter attack. This attack at first looks like it could be competitive, but it had too many spears compared to promi's cavalry amount and the spears are eaten by the archers and skirms, while promi's cavalry eat machines archers. Another outclassing for machine. From here promi delivers the death blow, advancing to imp along the way, including many rams and infantry to finish the job off nice and quickly.

Note: Promi didnt drop tc's immediately after reaching castle, it still won the game but it gave machine a chance to come back, which lucky for promi, it wasted badly. I would suggest at least 1 tc after hitting castle after a flush, outboom a damaged enemy and then deliver the death blow

Ouch my fav ally AI got beaten by my fav opponent AI. Will watch the rec game later today. Promi must have started the game with chat "gl hf". I guess Machine's final words are "Damn keyboard it doesn't work today."

.I sin a lot. Nuff said. Everyone sins a lot of time and don't sin only a couple of times. But that couple of times when they don't sin is what makes them think they're good enough they don't need conversion..

PromiskuitivSquire

posted
08-19-13 09:15 PM
CT (US)
66 / 1174

Though this here is with the userpatch, on 1.0c Promi won't flush and the chance to lose vs IS_Machine is probably higher. :>But i'm glad you like both our AI's!

Review: It was basically just a boom war. The only thing that happened before both Ai's hit imp was an accidental attack from the horde resulting in boss attacking back, and failing badly. Both ai's Imped shortly thereafter(horde won every age race),The Horde attacked once it was upgraded (it went drop + chuks) with an army of mostly upgraded chuks and a few skirms and cavalry. It came up against mostly skirms but overcame them quite easily. From there it was just a clean up.

Unfortunately, UserPatch breaks compatibility for saved and recorded games, so you will not be able to view recorded games from the ladder thread without UP.

lws735Squire

posted
08-19-13 11:59 PM
CT (US)
70 / 1174

Hi cakemaphoneige ,I can not open that record-game link (boss VS horde) you give.Could you give me another address?

cakemaphoneigeSquire

posted
08-20-13 07:28 AM
CT (US)
71 / 1174

lws, Archon uploaded it to ai scripters for you, if you havent seen it yet.

Dreadnought (Franks) vs Barbarian (Saracens)

Map Type: MongoliaGame Speed: CE x4/slow

Review: Both ais go FC. Dreadnought takes the obvious choice, Krush. Barbie on the other hand, goes for monks + scorps. Both are plotting away nicely until Barbie decides to attack. Now, as barbie launches its attack, one monk appears to be much further in front of the rest. It arrives at a builder building a stable and tries to convert the villager, drawing the attention of all Dreadnoughts knights. They rush over and kill the monk, but this left them in the exact path of the rest of Barbies monks, who seemed to ignore the knights presence until they began attacking. I think about 5-7 monks are killed here without converting a single knight, leaving the rest of barbies oncoming army much less powerfull. From here, barbie seems to just keep trying to attack, but never achieves anything more other than converting the occasional knight which proved useless as each knight is killed very quickly by Dreadnoughts army, or converted back by some lucky monks. Soon enough, dreadnought gets Heresy and scouts join the knights. It seems as if everything is even between both ai's but Dreadnought begins to outboom Barbie. The war rages on and Barbie begins to fall behind. Dreadnought is now pushing into barbies city, scouts are upgraded, knights are no more, rams are abundant and get Dreadnought a broomstick because its time to clean up.

Winner: DreadnoughtGame Time: 54.03

Note: Ohnestly, wow, did not expect this one either. Tremendous game and full credit to Dreadnought. I think Barbie got a bit unlucky with a few things, but then again it kind of went suicidal as the game went on, refusing to counter with spearman and such. I agree with sticking to a plan with some strategies, its how some of the best strategies are made, but maybe a few spearman wouldnt hurt when things are looking tough (or your doing a mush and the enemy gets heresy ).

Dreadnought went for kt with a few monks while Chameleon had ls, pikes and skirms. Chameleon slowly fell behind in eco as it had only two TC compared to Dreadnought's three.

Oh no my Spanish got pwned by mere Franks. But I thought Chameleon was good; she did quite well against me when I played as Spanish; she Goths. Oh well, maybe AIs don't play that well as Spanish, esp Spanish because the build order for Spanish civ can be radical depending on map type. But in any map, Spanish must make all efforts to make as many TCs as they can make, even if that's done at the expense of castle making.

The Supreme villagers didn't get into action by the look of it. If I could I would make an AI that specialize in Spanish only. But I know I couldn't so I keep wishing.

Promi: Though this here is with the userpatch, on 1.0c Promi won't flush and the chance to lose vs IS_Machine is probably higher. :> But i'm glad you like both our AI's!

The reason I like to have Promi as opponent is because Promi can almost prove to Ensemble Studios that massed Halberdiers should be banned And they micro themselves individually.

EmperorJustinian: Unfortunately, UserPatch breaks compatibility for saved and recorded games, so you will not be able to view recorded games from the ladder thread without UP.

Thanks for the heads up, bro.

.I sin a lot. Nuff said. Everyone sins a lot of time and don't sin only a couple of times. But that couple of times when they don't sin is what makes them think they're good enough they don't need conversion..

UnfairestEelSquire

posted
08-20-13 11:39 PM
CT (US)
76 / 1174

zergs: Chameleon (spanish) vs Dreadnought (franks), yucatan map

Dreadnought went for kt with a few monks while Chameleon had ls, pikes and skirms. Chameleon slowly fell behind in eco as it had only two TC compared to Dreadnought's three.

Oh no my Spanish got pwned by mere Franks. But I thought Chameleon was good; she did quite well against me when I played as Spanish; she Goths. Oh well, maybe AIs don't play that well as Spanish, esp Spanish because the build order for Spanish civ can be radical depending on map type.

~`o´~|\Join the fresh and exciting AI Ladder for its fourth season!´ ` |_\|Learn the joy of AI scripting in my guide: The World of AI Scripting______|______ \ /.....Hinga Dinga Durgen! - SpongeBob`-=<.__.>=-´

EmperorJustinianSquire

posted
08-21-13 10:31 PM
CT (US)
78 / 1174

Leif, you forgot to fill in the result for Nightmare vs. The Khanate (it was the first game to be played this round).

Leif EricsonSeraph Emeritus

posted
08-22-13 09:17 AM
CT (US)
79 / 1174

So this may actually be the first full game I've watched with UP. Crazy, I know.

Chameleon (Vikings) vs. The_Unknown (Turks)

Map: Oasis

Both AIs successfully herd sheep under the TC, although Chameleon seemed to ignore his boar. Unknown advanced to Feudal at 13:30 while Chameleon followed 15 seconds later. Unknown seemed to go FC with a market/smith while Chameleon only built a smith and trained m@a/spears. Chameleon's strategy became clear as he constructed a forward tower. The tower didn't really hit anything, although his infantry hit Unknown's LC as Unknown upped to the Castle Age. The infantry ended up following the villagers to the TC. Unknown sent half a dozen vils to knock down the tower as Chameleon sent some vils to try to repair it. It was to no avail of course.

Chameleon built a market, range, and stable and castled. He soon attacked with a force of upgraded infantry and knights. Unknown for some reason had decided to boom instead of training an army, and he was therefore defenseless against the new attack. Chameleon's army died to the TC, but it still caused damage. The attacks didn't stop however, although Unknown started pumping knights and monks. Soon both AIs were in imperial with Chameleon having a large lead in population. Soon, Chameleon's victory was certain, although the cleanup process was prolonged by Chameleon's attack targeting system. His soldiers wandered all across Chameleon's town to either attack a castle or to attack camps. I'm guessing the latter is due to failing to turn off a setting used for flushing.

[20:52:24]Promi kk sounds okay[20:52:34]Archon awesome deer lure by promi[20:52:36]Promi i hope Promi will be able to stop him from getting too many knights out[20:52:38]Promi nice[20:52:53]Archon but too fast now one rots at 97 food left[20:53:02]Promi argh[20:53:10]Promi i really need to do something about that[20:53:16]Promi but not sure on how to select slain deer[20:53:20]Promi with DUC[20:53:28]Promi i think it's not possible[20:53:31]Archon and I think steel just stole your boar in return.[20:53:37]Promi omg 11[20:53:38]Archon timers[20:53:57]Promi 3 boar krush steel vs 1 boar flush promi[20:54:06]Archon like if deer is 2 tiles away use a timer for 20s or so[20:54:15]Promi yeah i can definitely use timers, tasking them to deer would be even better though :> imo[20:55:28]Archon 13:30 steel still dark age promi has already some ranged units in it's range[20:55:54]Promi will probably still be too slow though o:[20:56:03]Archon promi archers flush an unused mill[20:56:09]Promi argh[20:56:13]Archon and kill a hunter walking by[20:56:25]Promi still, that's probably the killing-blow for Promi[20:56:32]Archon and retreat after more villager lure them into TC[20:56:45]Archon 17:50 castle age for Steel[20:56:57]Archon but you got some farmers, too[20:57:08]Archon and a fwd tower[20:57:31]Archon but retreating when kt hammer on your units isn't smart[20:57:59]Archon so flush is gone, steel kt clear the fwd tower[20:58:07]Archon at 22'[20:59:31]Archon steel has a monk to collect relics but no 2nd TC and no ranged units to deal with pikes if promi attacks once in castle age[21:00:07]Promi welp, Promi won't attack[21:00:24]Archon 27': 2nd steel TC going up in a good spot in front of the base[21:00:40]Archon promi got castle age at 28'[21:02:02]Promi Promi has switched to his old strategy[21:02:16]Archon yes. no pikes and no attack, even though steel has no siege[21:02:19]Promi So he will try to boom to imp with only as much military as needed to defend himself[21:02:42]Archon steel got a good placed castle now[21:03:13]Archon yes, promi 3 TC vs steel still 2 TC[21:06:01]Archon damn, forgot game is running with f8. now at 43' both players in imp[21:06:48]Archon steel launches an attack with castle age upgraded units only, but hits your lc[21:07:07]Promi doesn't mean much but: what are the points?[21:07:11]Archon gets +4 armor and cavalier before promi makes any defensive move[21:07:32]Archon 46': promi 10,1k steel 9.5k[21:08:00]Promi kk, Promi might still lose at that point though, he isn't consequent enough at getting researches such as hussars[21:08:03]Archon promi just WE, no elite up[21:08:14]Archon but steel has no halbs[21:08:23]Archon but starts doing them[21:09:47]Archon steel gathers units inside instead of defending his tripple castle[21:10:12]Archon but promi still can't destroy them[21:10:19]Archon with just rams and no trebs[21:10:35]Promi He still has no EWE right?[21:10:47]Archon now steel counter attacks, both 13.5k points[21:10:58]Archon promi had 2k lead[21:11:09]Promivhe willnever take these upgrades[21:11:26]Promi argh that's annoying[21:11:33]Archon [21:10:35]PromiHe still has no EWE right? << no, but that is a rather expensive one in 1v1 if enemy goes aggressive[21:11:34]Promi usually the games are decided before imp[21:11:45]Archon and steel has no pala either yet[21:12:49]Archon usually steel loves monks, but this time when he should get some he has none[21:13:32]Archon promi ceases his elephant plans[21:13:52]Archon has pikes + eskirms + hc[21:14:16]Archon steel has the same plus lc, but he has halbs already[21:14:38]Archon and his rams just ate two castles[21:16:53]Archon promi has 3 castles left but all at a poor spot[21:16:58]Promi if promi would just wait[21:17:03]Promi and upgrade his units[21:17:06]Promi this could be so good[21:17:08]Promi but he won't[21:17:24]Promi cause steel will keep doing these weird attacks until Promi is dead[21:17:33]Promi cause Promi doesn't cope well with the pressure[21:20:43]Archon steel adds scorps now, which are very effective vs promi's army[21:21:17]Promi finish didn't even complete his desired researches so he didn't even treat it as post-imp[21:21:19]Promi meh[21:23:17]Archon does promi use place-control or place-point with castles or just ts[21:23:30]Archon as they're all useless at the map border[21:23:43]Promi yeah i'd love to place them to the side but i can't[21:23:44]Promi so i use ts[21:24:27]Promi i don't want to put them in the front since those pathetic arrows don't help much anyway and i want to keep the castles to train units in them[21:24:32]Promi but behind my base they are meh too[21:24:33]Promi so yeah[21:24:35]Archon 1h27 promi 23k vs steel 28k[21:25:41]Archon steel has 5 trebs but doesn't really go aggressive with them, so there is a chance promi will make it to the 2 hour time line[21:27:09]Archon Clever move: steel cleared promis active camps[21:27:51]Archon so promi is now really with his back against the wall (do the english speaker say this?)[21:30:18]Archon15 min left[21:31:00]Promi promi still alive?[21:31:09]Promi or is he getting destroyed right now?[21:32:23]Archon good thing UP has fixed building under construction bug, 5 steel trebs hammering on new foundations all the time (and promi keeps rebuilding them)[21:33:31]Archon but steel army is idling again[21:34:42]Archon persian start TC down[21:35:57]Archon three trebs down, but instead of killing the remaining two promi retreats to some other TC[21:36:10]Promi as long as Promi gets a tie... ^^[21:36:14]Promi gametime?[21:37:10]Archon 2hours exceeded[21:37:39]Archon promi resigned at 2h7[21:37:44]Archon gg wp

The Horde planned on flushing while IS_M just trained a flush defense. The Horde was just moving to attack when he discovered that IS_M also built a well placed defensive tower and decided to retreat to get to the castle-age and attack with the upgraded units.But IS_M decided to do the same - just faster. After arriving in the castle-age IS_M even left The Horde some time to arrive in the castle-age and upgrade its units too but then IS_M still attacked. The attack wasn't too effective, it was pretty much a tie, but a few minutes later IS_M attacked again, then again and again and again. Inflicting more and more damage with each attack.After 47 minutes The Horde was in a position in which it would be impossible to turn the game around if IS_M would continue to play like that and thus The Horde resigned.GG!

Khanate's Aztecs should have the civilization advantage here as they have no cavalry for Chameleon to counter!

Khanate trains 5 militia and many villagers in the Dark Age, delaying his Feudal time to after 15 minutes. Chameleon is trundling along peacefully. Chameleon reaches castle just before 20 minutes while Khanate is a bit later despite having the necessary resources. Chameleon begins training trash while Khanate has resorted to the very strong Aztec monks!

Chameleon soon adds a knight or two and a few cavalry archers but Khanate just trains more monks. He advances to imperial first and soon attacks after getting many barracks up to make eagle warriors.

Khanate's attack with many monks and a few eagles proves too much for Chameleon first time. Chameleon loses most of his troops to Khanate and the game is pretty much over immediately.

Winner - The_KhanateGame time - 00:52:58

Note: I made a mistake in not pressing the Record Game button before the I started the game. If either scripter wants me to replay the game then I will do so.

First thing of interest I notice is Boss building a second mill in a pointless spot, wasting 100 wood

Barbarian going for very few farms (3) and two Lcs and so I was surprised at the 13' feudal

First attack was from barbarian who flushed, his attack knocked back by... villagers! However Barbarian wasn't finished yet as he launched a second attack of mostly ranged units again. And again Boss managed to fight it off with an actual army this time and minimal effort. This left boss with a slight military advantage, but he decided against counter attacking so barbarian peacefully made it to castle age first at 26:30 and boss followed about a minute later. Barbarian doesn't take advantage of this window so it comes down to booming, or so I thought...

Barbarian got a second TC up faster because he used many villagers as opposed to one. But it turns out he's more interested in attack as he launches an attack with knights and Eskirms. Being Turkish, Boss can't upgrade his numerous skirmishers leaving him in deep trouble. Barbarian comfortably wins this battle and therefore the war.

Notes:to lws735-I would recommend increasing sn-mill-max-distance before building a second mill or not building a second mill except on yucatan.-Use Multiple villagers to build TCs using (up-assign-builders c: town-center c: 5) and (up-assign-builders c: 621 c: 5). 621 is the town center foundation ID-Turks need to focus on their strengths to win, castle age skirmishers is not one of these strengths

To II2N:-The flush was way too slow, if Boss had gone fc it would have done minimal damage but since he counter flushed it did minimal damage anyway.-Either should have more farms in dark age, or aim for a faster feudal time.

Crusade (Persians) vs Dreadnought (Spanish)

Map: Mongolia

Normal dark age with both AIs going for heavy farming. Crusade hit feudal first with his flush and instantly dropped a stable and an archery and began training scouts. Dreadnought on the other hand worried me when he took a while to drop his stable as I didn't want the game to be ruined by a bug. But he eventually did. And Crusade attacks, unsuccessfully due to lack of micro but manages to get a tower up (although the first few towers were cancelled) and this disturbs Dreadnoughts villagers. Dreadnought hits castle at 19:04- too slow to be taking on even a 1.0c flush. Crusade doesn't give up however, and this is where the result of the match becomes apparent. as crusade starts attacking outlying buildings and kills any villagers that go wandering too far from tc. This wouldn't be a problem but Dreadnoughts output of knights was too slow to be taking on such a hardened rusher. The rest of the match was crusade cleaning up.

Notes: to Campeador-RETREAT when your army is going to die by TC, you need to get out of there. and then stop retreating after about 5-10 seconds, this way you can endlessly harass the opponent until they bring in military.-Set sn-livestock-to-town-center 1 it's a useful sn.

to Alevo-Your TS is too high early castle age and maybe use code to detect a flush and if activated try postponing eco techs for more early knights (or something)-Garrison is a useful tool to combat flushers with the userpatch, try to use it more.-Probably need more wood gatherers while advancing to feudal so you can instantly drop a stable and blacksmith: this was why you were so slow.

No idea how they will preform as I havn't touched them for over a month, but whatever changes I made were probably for a reason 11

UnfairestEelSquire

posted
08-23-13 11:49 AM
CT (US)
95 / 1174

The Khanate(Korean) vs Nightmare(Byzantine)

On yucatan koreans vs byz this map is awesome with extra res and a river seperating the 2 sides and plenty of chokepoints and fish, this match is looking to be a ripper.

In dark age Nightmare looks alright (doing nothing wrong) however khanate is doing everything perfectly: two good mills, a perfectly placed lumber camp and good multiple boar hunting. Also khanate wisely takes advantage of the natural resources and builds only 2 farms in dark age and gets a fast feudal, it is simply the best dark age I've ever seen from a natural wonders view.

The action begins quickly with khanate employing skirmishers and spearmen to launch a fast attack before nightmare reaches feudal age at around 14'. Nightmare is saved by a defensive tower and presumably switches to a counter-flush as flags appear on his military buildings. Khanate's army is quickly scattered which is good for harassing Nightmares villagers, but would die quickly if it faced an army: As Nightmare ungarrisons, his smaller army cuts up khanates fragments leveling the score.

Khanate attacks again with groups or patrol attack – his army is grouped – and wisely goes around the tower to the gold camp. However Khanates army got smashed by the combined force of Nightmares army and his TC giving nightmare a large military advantage, it's just a matter of using it. And he does

But Nightmare's counter-attack looks hopeless as he hits Khanate's forward tower, but then he hits castle age and builds a stable and a TC, looking on the money. Khanate follows a minute later.

Right now Nightmare should have a huge advantage but lost too many skirmishers to the forward tower to capitalise so it looks like a boom war....

Nightmares score advantage continues to increase despite being a TC down (2v3) eventually getting as much as 500 points ahead

Now this is interesting, at 35' Khanate hits imp(!) although a bit of a battle just before reaching imp may reduce his ability to instantly upgrade.

NO! Khanate wins this battle and all of a sudden is in a very good position! While things look bad for Nightmare, he is putting up a good fight, it's still far from over.

At 41' Nightmare hits imperial age! Despite being under heavy siege this doesn't seem like a good idea though... And he begins to win back space with Eskirms vs Khanate's arbalests. Khanate needs to change tactic or the match will turn around. He does, he storms in with at least 6 rams and cause serious havoc combined with 2 forward castles.

At 47' Khanate begins stealing the relics from Nightmare, this is bad. While it looks like Khanate has this in the bag, it wouldn't hurt to change from arbalests to maybe onagers, or anything but archer-line - if Nightmare wasn't already so badly hurt he probably would have won the match back with Cataphracts and Eskirmishers. We are witnessing awesome ram domination here. And nice rebuilding efforts from Nightmare

At 54' I can safely say it's been a gg but game over and well played while Khanate cleans up and it's game over.

Notes:To Offwo-VERY well played! up until late in the game I couldn't really find flaws in the way Khanate played, and with koreans it scares me to think what could happen with better civs.-Don't let the enemy just counter you, swap it up... going full arbs(+rams) vs Eskirms can't be too good. I did see a single elite war wagon late in the game but still being countered by skirmishers.

To Alevo-Also very well played, but room for improvement. I honestly struggled to find problems with Nightmare, just seemed to be a bit slower then Khanate for the entire match.-I don't know if Nightmare was trying to boom or just get to imp ASAP, but if Nightmare was trying to boom: 2 TCs won't cut it in booms wars (hypocritical statement lol)